


Curiouser and Curiouser

by valbino



Series: Curiouser-verse [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, F/M, Gen, Pregnancy, Revised Version, non massacre au, slice of life emphasis on slice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-07-12 21:38:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 4,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16003826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valbino/pseuds/valbino
Summary: The Third Hokage-against Danzo's wishes-convinced the Hyuga clan to make a peace offering to the Uchiha, one of their choosing; eventually, with the Hokage's approval, they arrange a marriage between Itachi Uchiha and Hinata Hyuga. This is the aftermath. Non-massacre AU, eventual ItaHina.Revision of original "Curiouser" fic





	1. Day 1

**Author's Note:**

> I initially wrote this fic at the end of high school and through college. This is a revision/rewrite! Among other things, I've removed the gratuitous Japanese and some superfluous scenes (particularly in the first third). There will also be extra scenes that I either had ideas for when I first wrote the fic or that I came up with to convey the same feelings as some of the deleted ones. There will also hopefully be fewer redundant-feeling scenes as a result.
> 
> I'm still following my internal ruleset for writing this fic: no less than 150 words, no more than 1000 per chapter.
> 
> A heads up: there is mention of sex, non-explicit and tame as it is. The bulk of this fic deals with pregnancy and there is some description of childbirth, though I don't believe there is anything particularly disturbing; if there is, I will put a warning before the chapter. I also try to keep this fic relatively on the lighter end, since I like leaving darker things in subtext and implication. Also! If a specific flower is mentioned, that's intentional. I encourage you to look into it.
> 
> And lastly-at the beginning of the fic, Hinata is turning 18 in a few months and Itachi has just turned 23. Why the timing isn't on an age 20 for one of them is mostly b/c I wanted to stay close to shippuden age without being More Problematique (there is in-universe justification, however). The only major station of canon I use is Tsunade as Hokage, as I think it would end up happening anyway.
> 
> Also, I'm posting this as a separate work because I find AO3's interface not super great for stuff like this and I also want the original up so I can refer to it and because I think a lot of people would be upset if I took it down.
> 
> Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

"We don't have to do this right now," Itachi whispered.

Hinata glanced down, between them, and back up. Her feet were cold. There was a missed hair pin poking at the skin behind her ear. The room was frigid, bedsheets even moreso. What a thing to latch on to.

"I...I...I think they'll know." She squeaked it out. "S - somehow."

Itachi swept a gaze down her body. They were both naked. Their wedding clothes were neatly folded on a nearby bench. Itachi was awkwardly balanced on his hands and knees over her. He was studiously avoiding eye contact.

"Maybe," he allowed.

He was quiet for a bit. Without Sharingan activated, he seemed much less intimidating. There was a soft glint to the brown-black of his irises. He was lean-muscled, stronger than he looked. He's out of his element, Hinata thought. But so was she, in maxed out air conditioning, in August. This would not be a dreamy springtime affair with gauzy curtains.

His lips parted in hesitation before he spoke again. "Would...genjutsu make this easier?"

"N...No! What?" she shrieked, jumping. She gripped the sheet. "Why?!"

"Sorry." A sort-of-flush began high on his cheeks, but his expression was stony. "Forget it."

"Um...m-maybe...just...we could…" She glanced down and squeaked again. "D...Do...it?"

(Itachi was not unused to deciphering stop-start squeaks, although Sasuke's language of awkwardness was more of a grumble these days.)

"If you're sure," he said.

His expression was the same, but the flush was a pink line across the middle of his face now. He made a 'hmm' sound, the one for considering an idea. Then, without warning, he hoisted up her legs.

"What-"

Itachi froze.

They looked at each other for a few seconds.

"Ah," he said. He dropped whatever his idea was with her legs. "I heard it was easier."

The silence thereafter was such that the air conditioning's low buzzing was the only sound.

Hinata attempted to suggest something along the lines of foreplay, but it came out as a series of ums and wes. Itachi's response was a single swallow, a gulp, visible and loud. He nodded as if he understood her intent.

"I...see," he said. It exited his lips as little more than air.

It wasn't precisely the mechanical action of it that cut her. While she shut her eyes as Itachi lowered himself to her, summoning a yellow-gold-blue picture in his place, Itachi's lack of being … him was not something she could truly be rid of. His hands were cold, breath soft. He touched her as little as possible. Of course, she was doing the same. There was nothing to enjoy about the archaism of consummation. The exact term, there, in the contract, alongside the word heir.

She did not open her eyes until long after Itachi's weight dented the mattress beside her.


	2. Day 2

The moving process had been streamlined by a team of both Hyuga and Uchiha moving boxes and furniture in the week or so before the actual wedding day. Of course, that still left Itachi and Hinata to unpack their belongings, as they had been doing all morning.

The house itself-provided by the clan-was near Itachi's childhood home, two floors. All the inner doors slid and had paper windows, though the outer doors were on a hinge. The ground floor was divided into two large sections by the staircase: a front room and the kitchen and dining area. The dining area was partitioned off with a movable divider. There was a toilet room and a large storage closet at the back of the stairwell.

He made his way upstairs. There was a box of toiletries at his hip. Hinata was leaning on the rail at the top; he saw a flare of chakra via Sharingan. The way Hyuga used Byakugan...was going to take some getting used to.

"Have you decided?" he asked.

"I...I don't know," she said, in the tone of someone who knew what they wanted but did not wish to say. "Um…"

"It's your choice."

"O-okay...um. The back room?" She pointed at the door at the end of the hallway.

She made a small noise at the back of her throat and added, belatedly, "Thank you."

He jostled the box a bit. "There's...no need for that."

"...Sorry." She slipped past him and went down the stairs.


	3. Day 5

Hinata was spending too much time in her room. She knew it. Itachi probably knew it, too, in the way he seemed to just know things. She was focusing on turning her room into something closer to her old home, though it seemed to have the effect of making her homesick. For a few days at least she would wear the yukata she had already unpacked; they were light for the weather.

She dug into a box of her decor. There were, of course, a few wall hangings and an old pressed flower arrangement that Neji had had framed for her birthday a few years ago. Framed pictures of family and friends.

There was one, at the very bottom, of her team and Naruto's team at the barbecue restaurant celebrating. Naruto had an arm around Sasuke, and an arm around herself. He was probably in the middle of a big belly-laugh. Sasuke was the only person out of the eight who wasn't grinning or laughing in the shot, actually. Well. There was a sake bottle obscuring Kakashi's face, so perhaps he wasn't either. She smiled.

A few months after that photo was taken, her father had approached her with the news of the engagement. And now it was near the end of August, a few months later, and she still felt the sting of having to break the news to Naruto, and then everyone else.

There was a tapping at her door.

She jumped. She knew it was Itachi, but she checked with Byakugan anyway.

"You're avoiding me," he said, flatly, just loud enough to filter through to the other side.

She put the photograph down and sidled up to the door. There was the soft scrape of fabric and a thump. He was probably kneeling, then. She opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

"Do I frighten you?"

"N-no."

It wasn't just a lie; it was a terrible lie. She sank to her knees and kept her eyes downcast.

Instead of calling the lie, he said, "Avoiding each other...isn't going to make this easier."

He paused, as if waiting for a response.

"I...don't know what you were told about me." He cleared his throat. "But-"

"They said you murdered someone." It wasn't meant to be an accusation, but that's how it tumbled out.

"What?"

"I-I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't-They said...they said you killed-"

"Don't apologize," he snapped. 

Quietly, like a mantra, he added, "Shisui killed himself."

The way he said it, it was like he had borne witness to it or found the body. She had her fingers splayed on the bottom edge of one of the door panels, unsure. There was nothing she could respond with. She bit her lip.

"Sorry for bothering you," he finally said, voice raspy. "I'll be downstairs."


	4. Day 8

"Here."

Hinata nearly jumped up from the sofa. She snapped the book she was reading shut and almost bumped her nose into Itachi's outstretched fist. He pulled it back. He seemed almost...sheepish, the way he was looking intently to his left.

She held out an open palm and into it fell a squarish silver key.

"It's for a training ground Sasuke and I used to visit."

"Oh…" She looked up at him. "Um...Thank you?"

"It's nothing." He pushed his hands deep into his pockets. "I can show you where it is. Before I leave in the morning."

"A-already?"

"...Yeah."

Of course, they must have had an assignment specifically for him in ANBU. Or did he request a specific mission? She looked at the key again. It was difficult to suss out his motivations in gifting such a thing to her.

Was it a clan politics sort of move? A way to gain her favor and secure an heir in that manner? The icy claw of panic started to make its way up her chest as the implications clicked into place.

She turned the key over in her fingers. It was well used, but well cared for. She had a feeling the training area it unlocked would be much the same. A pang of guilt dropped down onto her head. It was just a key, either way.

"Oh," she said, after a slightly too long period of silence.

"I don't know how long it'll be," he said. "I can't-ah."

He pushed the key back into her palm. This time, she did startle. She jerked her eyes up and found herself staring into the Sharingan. He closed her fingers over it.

"Keep it."


	5. Day 10

Sasuke arrived at the training ground to Hinata practicing taijutsu. He made no secret of it, but she did not see him until she was finished with her warm-up kata.

She gasped and wrung her hands together. "H-hi."

"Hey." He shoved his hands into his pockets.

He looked at a group of targets. Itachi had not  _explicitly_  allowed him to use the area for years, though he figured being in ANBU made Itachi busy, and used it anyway. He ignored the irritation at Hinata being given a key. Whatever the reason, it wasn't her fault.

"W-would you like to train? I can go if you want…"

He shrugged. "You can stay. I don't care."

Hinata continued her hand-to-hand exercises while Sasuke began throwing kunai and shuriken at the targets.

"Would you...Would you like to spar?" she said, after a few minutes of this.

He narrowed his eyes. "Sure. No jutsu."

They circled each other in the main clearing. Neither wanted to make the first attack. A shift in footing, and they flew at each other, Hinata angling for vital areas, Sasuke trying to find an opening for projectiles.

Even without Byakugan, she dodged everything with the ease of dance. But his taijutsu was stronger. She was playing it like she was using gentle fist, swooping around and around for the perfect strike. It was so easy to push her arms and legs aside, but she managed to flip it back around on him somehow.

In the end, it was a draw. Sasuke stuck his hands back into his pockets. He pretended like an idea hadn't just jumped to the surface of his thoughts like an electric arc.

"That was fun," he said, extending a hand up as he walked out. "Seeya."

He took the longer path home to suss it out.

Hinata wasn't taking on missions. He knew because he had checked the schedule at the Hokage tower yesterday. Last one had been right around when the whole engagement thing went public.

What was her deal, then? Itachi was still on active duty with ANBU. Of course, their parents would probably pressure Tsunade to retire him from the roster soon. Maybe the Hyuga clan had forbidden her from taking on missions.

She used to take assignments back to back, so she wouldn't just stop on her own...Would she?


	6. Day 15

Hinata left Itachi's chosen room without a word. Rather than go to her room, she entered the bathroom across the hall, dropping her silk robe to the white tile after closing the door. She piled her hair up and clipped it to the top of her head. She wanted to just...soak. After filling the bath, she threw some lavender-infused salts into it.

She let her head rest on the lip of the basin when she sank into the water, closing her eyes. It was easy to entertain the thought of running away. To take on a deep cover mission and just...disappear. She pulled her knees to her chest and watched the ripples left in the movement's wake. No, she would never actually try it. It wasn't the logistics, or even the clan duty.

She just didn't believe running away ever solved a problem of this nature.

Her understanding of the marriage, at its heart, was that Fugaku Uchiha and her father and the clan councils decided that this would be the best route to harmonizing the village. Since she was the one marrying an Uchiha, and not the other way around, then the Uchiha clan must have been holding something over the Third's head, or threatening a conflict.

She tipped her head back again and sighed. There was no point in trying to find the original document. It was probably not much different from the one she signed.

Her hands splayed across her stomach. An heir. She took a deep breath of the lavender scent. What a strange stipulation. She tried not to notice the expansion of her diaphragm. It didn't matter why, at this point. She inhaled again. Exhaled again. But the sooner the better. Then there would be less trouble, she supposed.

Somehow, the thought didn't calm her nerves as she toweled off and prepared for bed. 


	7. Day 16

Itachi leaned against the entryway to the kitchen. He watched Hinata work, moving back and forth between the far counter and the stove and the stone cutting board. She diced vegetables and chopped herbs, one at a time, then cradled them between knife and hand before dropping them in a large pot. A sour scent wafted through the room - the tang of miso.

Most likely, Hinata didn't know he was there. The glimpses of her expression he caught weren't content, precisely. But there was stillness, calm. Things that evaporated when she knew he was there.

He didn't want to step over the threshold and break the bubble yet. The corner of the wall dug into his shoulder. He pushed off the wall with extra force. Hinata jumped. She did not turn, though he saw the brief chaka-pulse of Byakugan with Sharingan.

"Hi," she mumbled. "Did...did you need anything?"

"Ah." His reason for even being in the room at all escaped him for a few seconds longer than he was comfortable with. "I was going to make some tea. Will I be in the way?"

She didn't move. "N-no."

The process of gathering his kettle, the metal infuser, and the loose tea box took not even half a minute. He turned the burner on and poured in the water. Hinata's pot was holding a rich vegetable stew. And she was looking at the cutting board.

He swallowed, held the inside of his cheek between his teeth for a moment.

"It...looks good," he offered.

She blinked up at him. Her lips parted in hesitation. "...Th-thank you."


	8. Day 24

Hinata awoke to a loud thump from the bottom floor. She activated Byakugan. Itachi was face down. She scrambled out of bed. She barely noticed the stairs as she went, keeping Byakugan active until she reached him.

He was half on, half off the sofa. His head was turned toward her. The red pinpoints of Sharingan bore down on her. His clothes were black. Otherwise the room was cast in the deep blues of night. She knelt beside him. It was hard to tell if he was fully conscious. One of his eyes was closed and the other seemed to be following. As it slipped shut, Sharingan dissipated.

She looked at his chakra network, properly this time, with Byakugan. Dim, but not fading. His mission must have stretched him to his limit. Or close. A good night's rest and a decent meal would probably be enough. She reached over and held two fingers against his neck to time his pulse: fast, slowing rapidly. He was probably dropping off into sleep.

As she lifted her fingertips from his neck, his hand snapped to her wrist. She caught the glint of his eyes opening a fraction. His hand shook. It would be easy to tug her arm free. But she waited.

"Itachi?"

He grunted once.

His fingertips followed the line of her forearm and down her hand as he passed out.

She tried not to dwell on it as she made some broth for when he awoke.


	9. Day 30

Itachi found Hinata waiting for him in front of the door to the Hokage's tower. He was unsure why she would seek him out once done with her self-appointed errands. There was no point in holding back what happened.

He said it without preamble: "I'm no longer in ANBU."

Hinata wrung her hands. "Oh."

"Would you know anything about how my parents were involved?"

He immediately regretted asking such a thing. It had been loaded and fired off for no reason except to provoke, unleash. Instead of shrinking away as expected, she put on the face of someone trying to remember something important.

"Forget I asked," he said, and started off, briskly, for home.

She followed.

The sidewalk was empty when he stopped and turned around. It had only been a few minutes. He followed a stray cat with his eyes until it scrambled under a bush. His hands were buried in his pockets. He finally made himself look at her.

Her eyes carried a concerned gleam. "Your mother, um, stopped by a couple of days ago."

"Did she."

"Yes." She glanced away. "You were on a mission."

"And then?"

"She just - asked how you were doing."

"What, exactly, did you say to my mother?"

She tugged at the hem of her sleeve. "Just that, um, you had been taking on a lot of assignments. That's it."

"I guess she came to her own conclusions," he said, softly.

"W-wait, then…you mean..." She clapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh  _no_. I'm. I'm sorry."

"You didn't...do anything wrong." He paused. "And..."

Her fingers curled up near the bottom of her chin, then her hands sank back down to her chest. He lifted a hand and realized he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do with it. It was the barest touch, a whisper along the fabric.

"I should be the one apologizing." He swallowed. "I'm sorry."


	10. Day 34

Itachi paced around the front room. His mother was seated on the sofa. She sipped from a cup of herbal tea. He had invited her over for lunch while Hinata would be out; she'd said she was meeting with her sister at the cafe. Their own meal had been quiet except for small talk.

Mikoto smiled. "Lunch was lovely, by the way. I was hoping we could-"

He stopped and looked down at her. "Why  _was_  I discharged from ANBU?"

"Well." She chuckled. "I don't know why you think I had anything to do with that."

"I...had a talk with Hinata." He frowned a little.

"Oh, fine. Sit down, dear." She patted the empty half of the sofa.

He crossed his arms.

"I...suppose I wasn't expecting your father to request a full discharge." She shrugged.

"We just want you to stay safe, alright?"

He swallowed. That wasn't what he expected her to say. "Safe."

"Of course. Those missions are dangerous." She tucked her hair behind her ear. "I won't pretend to know what they entail, but-"

"I don't follow," he said. "My records are flawless."

There was an unfamiliar, hard glint in Mikoto's eyes. Her tone remained light, however. "I think it's time to take my leave."

He was motionless while she stood, walked past him, and gave her parting words.

"Have a lovely afternoon!"

Like a nail being hammered into a coffin, the door clicked shut in three sharp sounds.


	11. Day 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I saw a few questions both here and on FFN about why AO3 is behind FFN! Part of it is AO3 is kind of a "mirror" of my better FFN stuff, so it's a bit lower on the priority list of where I post. 
> 
> However, the idea is that eventually all of it is on both FFN and AO3! fret not
> 
> Thanks for reading and enjoy!

There was something soothing about handling plant matter and dirt, the smell of earth and grass.

Hinata supposed it was a bit late in the year for managing the flower beds. The previous owner, or caretaker, of the home had given little thought to both what they chose to plant, as well as where to place them. The dying annuals' leaves crumbled at her touch. The perennials would best be transplanted in the spring.

Gardening, when winter was over, would help claim the now-free time that used to be occupied by missions. Training every day was something she already did. It might not be exciting, but she was going to keep it up. And there was visiting with Neji, Hanabi, and her genin team. She did  _not_  want to turn into a typical clan matron. They were always bored into obsessing over housekeeping alongside fixating on politics.

Perhaps that was why Itachi had yet to decide on what his occupation would be after ANBU. He did not seem like someone with the demeanor, temperament, or-she bit a laugh back-tact most clan heads seemed to have. So, instead, he enmeshed himself in training.

"Good morning."

Hinata jumped. She looked up. Mikoto must have been walking down the path on the way to the market in the city, judging from the cloth bags hanging along her forearm.

She plastered on a smile. "G-good morning, Mikoto-san."

"Do you like gardening?" Mikoto bent over to look, but did not kneel beside her.

"Oh, um. Yes." Her hands started fidgeting in her lap.

"I suppose you already have ideas for what you'll plant in the spring, yes?"

"I guess..."

"I've never had the patience to garden myself." Mikoto laughed with a hand covering her mouth. "Though I suppose having a family would replace gardening, at least for me."

Hinata tried not to frown. "What do you mean?"

"Let's say it starts the same way. Planting a seed. It putting down roots." There was a sharpness in her tone, even as she lowered her voice.

Hinata's stomach felt like it was trying to crawl under her rib cage and hide.

"And, of course, once it sprouts, you water it. You cover the soil with...wood chips, I believe. Or compost. Eventually, it blooms. Do you follow?"

"Yes." She nodded. "I...think I do."

Mikoto smiled. "Good."


	12. Day 40

Itachi hated touching her like this. He was barely watching her undress, but the thought rose like bile. She faced away from him, hair pulled over one of her shoulders. He turned his eyes to the walls and tried to focus only on the way the edge of the bed's frame dug into the backs of his calves.

He hated this.

He licked, then parted his lips. "We...we don't have to-"

"Don't we?" She turned, hands crossed over her chest. She was staring at the wooden floor. "I've been told...it's easier this way."

"...How so."

"Um…" she shifted her weight from one foot to the other like she was anticipating something. "I guess it's supposed to be a bit like, um, tearing off a bandage?"

A laugh erupted from his mouth before he could stifle it. It was short, more of a sharp, loud exhale. "Is that really the best way to put it?"

"I guess not."

She bent to pick up her robe. Her hair slid over shoulders in a single cascade. She paused partway through cinching the belt of it. Then a peal of laughter burst out. Even after covering her mouth, the giggling persisted.

"Is there something funny about this?" He hoped the question didn't sound so sharp to her as it did to him.

"It's just...It's just." She swayed a little. "I couldn't not say it?"

"It's certainly one way to explain it."

She lowered her arms and folded them at her waist. "Yeah."

"You could do worse."

"Mhm." Her voice was barely present.

The quiet that followed was one where words were begging to be said, like the bulge of water threatening to spill over the lip of a cup that was slightly too full. Itachi swallowed.

She raised an eyebrow. "What's your idea of doing worse?"

"I'd rather not say." He didn't want to ruin... _this._

"It-it's hard to be worse than, um, you know. This."

She made a good show of trying to smile, trying to bail out the shallow boat of common ground. It nearly convinced him.

"Besides," she added, "I want to know."

"I suppose I see it as throwing pebbles at a snow bank until you get an avalanche."

"Either way...it doesn't really matter, I guess." There was a note of stone in her voice that made his skin crawl. She turned off the light as she left the room.

Itachi stood and yanked the curtains shut. He pulled on some sleep clothes. He laid down and stared at the ceiling. The air was heavy enough to fill his bones with deep, tepid fatigue. He wasn't going to sleep tonight.


	13. Day 44

While Hinata was glad for the assistance at the Konoha Market, she wasn't so sure about Itachi being the assistant. But he had insisted. And it wasn't exactly a bad thing. She glanced back at him. His gaze was roaming around the open market square. He didn't have Sharingan on.

She dropped some coins in the hand of the vegetable stall owner and then turned and dropped the vegetables into the tote bag hanging off his arm.

"You didn't, um...need to do this," she mumbled.

"I wanted to."

There wasn't a good argument against it, of course.

She normally meandered about for awhile as she shopped. Itachi did not seem like a meanderer. So she was proceeding down each line of stalls. An itchy discomfort grew in her chest with each stop. She picked up a pale melon to check its ripeness and it slipped from her hands. He caught it before it hit the ground.

"Something's bothering you."

"What makes you say that?" The pitch of her voice betrayed her.

He held it out to her like an offer. "You seem...uncomfortable."

"It's...It's fine. You can put it in the bag." She crossed her arms.

He stepped closer. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." She flicked a glance at it. Honeydew. Its rind was soft white. "It'll be ripe in a few days."

He shifted his weight from foot to foot. He stared at the honeydew for a few seconds before placing it into the tote bag.

"I wasn't asking about the melon."

"Oh." She turned around and began to pick up and put down the other honeydew melons as a distraction. "What was it?"

"Are you alright?"

"Yes." She laid the flat of her hand over a watermelon. "Just...I um, usually go to the market alone, is all."

"Thank you for letting me help out, then."

Her cheeks grew hot. She smiled a little. "Of. Of course."


End file.
